Vol. 38, No. 18

11-19-2008
By:

Booktalk, 11/20/08

Pam Frost Gorder is the assistant director of research communications and a columnist for the magazine Computing in Science and Engineering. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

What are your five favorite books and why?
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
With this book, Capote proved that news could be written in a literary way — with environmental details and dialogue that grip the imagination — and thus launched the New Journalism movement.

The Mars Trilogy  by Kim Stanley Robinson
This is science fiction with a lot of real science in it. Robinson works hard to get the science right. He not only portrays scientists as real people, but he shows them dealing with the political and ethical issues that scientists face in real life. It’s writing like this that changes the public perception of science.

Chaos by James Gleick
A book about a mind-bogglingly complex area of science that is surprisingly easy to read. Gleick explains what chaos is and why we should care. He also weaves together the historical events that enabled the chaos theory to evolve. I spent weeks on this book — because I was repeatedly seized with jealousy and read the same passages over and over again to better understand how Gleick did what he did.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
If only someone would make a Frankenstein movie that was true to this book! The story is much more moving when the “monster” is an intelligent being who understands his terrible fate. Shelley doesn’t rely on gore to be frightening, either. Some of the scariest passages describe people’s reactions to a horror, rather than the horror itself.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (five-book trilogy) by Douglas Adams.
I laughed until I cried. “Don’t panic,” and “always bring a towel” — words to live by.

Who is your favorite character in literature?
Jo March in Little Women: A strong-willed woman writer who defies social norms and moves to New York to find her voice. I come from a very small town where most women my age got married and had kids right after high school. Not many women went to college, and nobody back home ever understood why I wanted to study journalism in New York. Nobody except my grandmother, who was a lot like Jo March. I guess you could say Grandma was my favorite character in real life.

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